A Nephew by Any Other Name

Earlier in the week I returned from a visit to meet the brand new nephew (my sister’s sixth child). With these last two, my sister and brother-in-law have taken to giving four names, and this new guy’s four are very well-thought-out. One is an early theologian, and one is the family name. But two of the four are musically inspired, both composers – one renaissance and one classical.

As I’ve mentioned, my sister, the middle child, is the maestro of my family, and she married one too. I learned on my trip that my brother-in-law is working on a book on renaissance music. It’s an interesting project, and I look forward to learning more about it and eventually reading it. It makes sense to me that children’s names take on the qualities of the life the family is living.

For them, it’s always been a musical life. My sister teaches piano lessons vocationally and sings beautifully, and my brother-in-law studies music passionately; he guides his church with music, and even toured the country with a Christian pop band in his college years. So far, one niece is playing the violin, and she and another are both taking piano lessons as well. I’m sure more will take up the family passion as they age.

I wonder if a musical name will make the nephew more likely to be musical. To return to the theme of causal strings, we will never know. But the names make for a nice story.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan

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